The striker – who has scored in the last four meetings at Watford and has just become the first Hornets player ever to hit 20-plus goals in three successive seasons – punished a sluggish defence with an opener out of the blue after a promising but fruitless spell for Boro.

The newly reshaped defence failed to close down a Guedioura cross and Jonathan Woodgate – who has been imperious in his recent outings - misjudged the flight of the ball, leaving Deeney to burst past static new boy Dwight Tiendalli and slam home an angled exocet.

Boro were just starting to show again after the break when they were undone by a self-inflicted wound for the second.

Grant Leadbitter was caught in possession on the flank and mugged by a swarm of Hornets and with the option of hoofing it out of play he chose instead to back-heel the ball into space and former Boro target Ben Watson whipped it away and squared quickly for Odion Ighalo to swivel round Woodgate and ram home a rocket.

Game over. Boro huffed and puffed after that and George Friened beavered away and at times single-handedly tried to claw a way back, but it wasn’t to be.

Boro didn’t have the power or the guile to salvage the situation and the game fizzled out.

There were a couple of half chances, their keeper Gomes had to make a few routine saves and there were two very hopeful penalty shouts waved away but with Patrick Bamford again isolated up front Boro never looked like mustering the firepower needed to beat a well-drilled Watford side.

So, once again Boro have scrambled to the summit and then slipped back.

But that has been the template for this term. And not just for Boro.

Grant Leadbitter in action against Watford

It seems every side that gets to the top of this crazy division of coupon-busters crumbles, stumbles and falls away.

This has been a campaign marked out not by any team waltzing away with it but by the sometimes erratic progress of a slightly tipsy dad dancer.

Two steps forward, one step back. One step on your other foot, wobble, stumble and fall.

Or in Friend’s case, head-long plunge over the advertising hoardings and a heavy landing on the artificial turf. Crash.

But like George, Boro can bounce straight back up and get straight back into action.

Losing at title rivals and getting knocked off the top at Watford was a stinging blow – but it wasn’t terminal, whatever the habitual doom-and-gloomers say.

The same cries went up after an equally disappointing result – and far worse performance - at Bournemouth before the break.

But bizarrely after the next game Boro found themselves back on top. How did that happen?

It happened because, whatever the pain caused by defeat, Boro remain firmly enmeshed in the four-way (Five-way? Six- way?) scrum at the top.

And that means despite the dismay in the aftermath of the Watford woe, we are still in with a shout.

Why not? Boro remain one point off the top with five games to go. And as a defiant Aitor Karanka pointed out after the game, we’d have all taken that back in August.

Boro remain a good side. They remain in the mix. And we have a five-game sprint now that will be tense and tourniquet tight but still holds out the tangible possibility of glory.

Many fans seem to have given up. That is crazy. This is what we wanted - to be challenging, to be involved right to the end. This is our first serious promotion push in almost 20 years – and we are still in it. And no-one said it would be

I can’t be doing with all these faint-hearts and habitual nay-sayers who keep telling us that all the other sides are light years better than Boro.

All the rest of our rivals score more, or play better football, or are mentally stronger and won’t wobble, or have easier fixtures. Or that Boro can’t defend, can’t score, have injuries mounting up and have been “found out” by opposition coaches and at some point will implode.

Yet these other wonder teams haven’t run away with it. They are at best a point better off.

Yes it is tense. Yes there are nerves. Yes, the stakes are high and it could go wrong and kick us in the teeth but that is the nature of the beat. Nothing ventured… This season so far has been FANTASTIC. And it could be about to get better.

“But our form is rubbish.” Boro have won three out of five. Nine points from 15. That’s more than the magic two points a game ratio we are supposed to need to secure glory.

And that run includes landing major dents inflicted on Ipswich and Derby.

Boro have every chance to still seize an automatic place. And the title.

The setbacks at Bournemouth and Watford have not wiped out he good work of the season so far.

And it did not happen in isolation and while Teessiders only see their own team’s flaws and fragilities, the other teams are just as flawed, they all have injuries, tactical weak spots, all the other sides are wobbling and cracking and stuttering too.

Every team that has got to the top this season has got a nosebleed. That has been a feature of this season. Derby have got to the top and gone into a nosedive. Watford have done it twice. Bournemouth have got to the top several times then slipped away. They made a habit of it.

None of these teams are superhuman. Let’s not be scared by bogeymen of our own creation.

Boro fans at Vicarage Road for the game against Watford

Of course it could go wrong. Boro might slip back. But that wouldn’t be the end of the world.

There are plenty of of pre-emptive pessimists who “wouldn’t fancy Boro in the play-offs against any of this lot”.

Why? “Because Boro struggle against the top teams”.

Look at the teams behind us that we could come up against. Derby? We beat them home and away. Brentford. We beat them home and away. Ipswich, we lost down there but battered them here and won on aggregate.

If we have to do it that way, then so be it. The possibility is still there. The season is coming to a climax and we are in a great position.

Yes, we have Norwich looming but we also have three homes games and that could be crucial.

Boro have lost ONCE at the Riverside since August. That form could be the decisive factor. And apart from Wolves, our visitors have little to play for. Three wins would give Boro 84 points.

That will put us on the verge of promotion and needing just two or three points from the two away games, Norwich and Fulham.

That’s not exactly Mission Impossible.

Other teams are scared of us. Seriously.

Beyond Teesside Boro are seen as the real deal. Rival managers, fans and the national pundits all believe Boro are in pole position for one of the promotion spots.

It is time for Boro fans to start to believe it too. Believe it and articulate it. Get behind the team. This is the moment we have waited for since relegation. It may be our best and only chance to go back up.

And fans have a role to play here. We can’t squander an epoch-defining moment by nit-picking or “being a realist” or worrying about what might go wrong or waiting cynically or sceptically to see how we are going into the Brighton game on the final day before deciding to get behind the team.

There are five games left. Let’s enjoy every single minute of every one of them.